Over the summer, Apple informed developers that all apps would be required to securely connect to servers by January 1st, 2017. The announcement came as part of the App Transport Security feature in iOS 9. This evening, however, Apple announced that it is extending the deadline for developers to make the switch to HTTPS connectivity…

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In a post on its developer website, Apple stated that it is giving developers more time to support App Transport Security and thus extending the deadline. At this point, however, Apple has not announced the new deadline:

At WWDC 2016 we announced that apps submitted to the App Store will be required to support ATS at the end of the year. To give you additional time to prepare, this deadline has been extended and we will provide another update when a new deadline is confirmed.

Despite being introduced with iOS 9, App Transport Security was not required for developers to use and in many cases, it wasn’t used. For instance, not long after the feature was announced, Google offered developers code to disable the feature and continue serving ads.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the new deadline Apple imposes on developers for supporting HTTPS server connectivity.